As we’ve written extensively at RedState, progressive, George Soros-backed Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has wreaked havoc on the City of Angels with his soft-on-crime, victim-hating prosecutorial policies that have led to a dramatic increase in crime.

Fed-up residents of all political persuasions joined a recall effort against the woke DA, but it failed—not because of a corrupt registrar as many have been led to believe—but as Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar revealed, due to unexplained incompetence by the signature-gathering organization that was paid millions to oversee the process.

But proving the old adage (actually I just made it up), “hell hath no fury like a progressive scorned,” Gascón is now intent on exacting his pound of flesh, and is reassigning and demoting many of the deputy district attorneys who backed the recall. From Deputy District Attorney Marc Debbaudt’s Facebook page:

Bizpacreview reported that two senior prosecutors are speaking out after their recent demotions:

…John McKinney and John Lewin, both deputy district attorneys in the Major Crimes Division, and Jason Lustig, assistant head deputy attorney overseeing the Long Beach courthouse, learned Thursday that they would be shunted to low-level positions in two weeks; however, their salaries will not change.

McKinney calls it outright retaliation:

“The DA is reassigning me to retaliate against me for calling attention to the fact that he’s incompetent and not following the law in the state of California,” said McKinney, who in July, announced that if the recall of Gascón succeeded, that he would run to replace him…

“I am only a month and half away from having prosecuted one of the highest profile cases in our office in recent memory, and I’m being reassigned to a job of literally no consequence,” McKinney said, referring to the high-profile case of [rapper Nipsey] Hussle’s 2019 murder.

Deputy DA Jonathan Hatami, who sued Gascón in September citing retaliation, race discrimination, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, is an outspoken critic:

George Gascón may think he’s punishing prosecutors who speak out by intimidating them, calling them derogatory names, moving them, not promoting them & demoting them. He’s actually punishing the victims, their families & the entire LA community. It’s not leadership.

— jonathanhatami (@jonathanhatami) September 24, 2022

It gets worse though, as the depths of the pettiness displayed by Gascón are actually quite shocking:

Lustig, another victim of Gascón’s apparent revenge told Fox News Digital, “It’s clear retaliation. I’ve been hurt professionally and economically, and it’s extremely stressful,” the 33-year veteran said. “It’s taking me back to the position I held in 1994, my fifth year in the DA’s office.”

“Although his pay will not change, the transfer essentially stymies any shot at a future promotion and increases his commute from seven to 30 miles, he said. Both McKinney and Lustig described their new positions as blatant demotions”….

“They’re destroying morale, destroying operations of the office,” he said. “They’re instilling fear in anyone who might have the courage to speak out against this DA and his policies.” [Emphasis mine.]

#NEW “I’m coming for Mr. Gascon’s job. I’m going to take the assignment he put me in now but long term I’m taking his assignment”@johnmckinney_ declares he will run to replace his boss @GeorgeGascon in ‘24… turning his reassignment into fuel for a campaign run pic.twitter.com/VgydULAeAq

— MarlaTellez (@MarlaTellez) September 24, 2022

The worst part about all this is that polling shows that had the signature gatherers done their jobs and qualified enough valid signatures to proceed, the recall effort would have almost certainly succeeded and we’d be rid of Gascón by November. Unfortunately, expect to see more stories like this: drugged-out teen purposefully mows down a baby and mother in a stolen car, Gascón gives him 5 months in a “probation camp,” and now the teen dirtbag is requesting early release. Yes, this is actually happening—you can’t make this stuff up—and it’s just one of many horror stories that Gascón has brought to the city of Los Angeles.

Not to get too philosophical on a Saturday afternoon, but I often wonder—who goes into the voting booth and votes for this guy? Who says to themselves, “yes, I want more crime, I want more criminals to be released, I want our city to continue its descent into a Third-World hellhole?” I often hear that powerful public-sector unions are to blame, but even if you were a union member, wouldn’t you close the curtain, make sure no one was looking, and vote for somebody—anybody—other than Gascón, whose mission seems explicitly to destroy what was once one of the most wonderful cities on earth?

I don’t get it.

Be that as it may, Gascón has once again shown his true colors as a petty, vindictive, nasty prosecutor who will destroy anything and anyone who gets in the way of his delusional progressive dream. Now that the recall has failed, we can only hope to get rid of him once and for all in 2024.

I feel terrible for the DDAs who worked their butts off on the recall Gascón effort, risking their careers, and are now paying the price due to consultant incompetence and greed.

— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) September 23, 2022